My internet abruptly stopped working today and Chrome said that DNS lookup had failed. I googled around and found out how to set my DNS to go to 8.8.8.8 (Google) automatically. That's got the internet more or less working but a) its very slow and b)I'm a bit concerned about why it died on me in the first place.

It's completely free, no gimmicks...no ads or tricks, or viruses and what not. I'd of course contact your Internet Service Provider to see what's going on, and find out if they're having service issues... which I'm sure you know is going to be a lovely, long phone call, and probably one full of denials.... even if you could send them a Youtube video for evidence of your service not working or real time Skype/Facetime them and show them that your service was having issues.

But nonetheless, discussion with your service provider or searching their site, if they have a public posting of any news regarding service issues or like a public support forum would be the best start to find out if any others have had similar issues in your area.

Or as stated on the OpenDNS site, you can continue to use their DNS server information for as long as you like. However, if you continue to have issues with internet service, then it is beyond DNS lookups. As I've used OpenDNS for quite sometime, without issues as either my primary DNS or as a secondary and with multiple service providers and have no issues with DNS lookups.

Cheers m'dears. I've switched over to OpenDNS and it does seem faster. I'll stick with this for a while in the hopes of avoiding talking to TalkTalk. Although, to give them their due, I've actually never had any issues with their helplines. I share an accent with the majority of UK call centre staff

Be advised that utilising a non ISP based DNS Provider may cause other issues for you.

While OpenDNS / GoogleDNS etc may give you service, or even an improved services, it can disable ISP specific routing rules and depending on your plan result in increased quota usage or charges.

My ISP provides a set quota of combined UL/DL per month, but also provides a "Free Zone" of traffic types that are unmetered.

In my case - the ISP has its own channel or contractual agreements with iTunes and Netflix CDN's in the country, and applies custom routing rules. These allow it direct the traffic to an optimum CDN that is considered within their network, reducing costs for them, and allowing them to offer it as a free extra to customers. The external DNS providers do not know this, and can only direct to the normal public interfaces into these CDN's resulting in the traffic to be counted in quotas/charges.